Forced to flee from Mali, Sidi Abdoulaye has found a new sport in Vermont

Dec. 17, 2013

South Burlington cross-country runner Sidi Abdoulaye of Mali runs with his team during practice Wednesday. Since picking up running a year ago, when he first moved to Vermont, Sidi is now a top high school runner in the state. / RYAN MERCER/FREE PRESS

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Free Press Staff Writer

From left, Pat Hickey sets his watch as he takes off with Sidi Abdoulaye and other top members of the South Burlington High School cross country team during a practice Wednesday. / RYAN MERCER/FREE PRESS

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SOUTH BURLINGTON — This article was originally published on October 12, 2013.

Sidi Abdoulaye ran for his life last year, away from the political unrest that divided his home country of Mali before finding refuge in Vermont.

Abdoulaye still runs today, except the metaphor has changed for the 17-year-old. Running is now a source of pride, a love fostered as a member of the South Burlington High School cross-country team.

“He’s one of the few people that is always happy,” said Sean MacDonald, one of Abdoulaye’s teammates. “It’s kind of hard when you run a hard workout to be excited, but he’s still the same as before — smiling and joking.”

From fleeing Africa to settling in Vermont, Abdoulaye turned to a sport he never thought he’d set out to do.

A JV runner in his first year at South Burlington in 2012, Abdoulaye burst onto the scene as a senior this fall, posting the winning time at the Essex Invitational and finishing as the top Vermonter at the Woods Trail Run to cement his place as the Division I favorite for the state meet later this month.

“I think he’s absolutely the most gifted runner that I’ve ever coached,” South Burlington coach Geoff Bennett said. “He just floats out there and we haven’t coached anything form wise.”

But it wasn’t that long ago Abdoulaye was torn away from his family, only to relocate in Vermont with his sister and brother-in-law serving as guardians.

Military coup in Mali

Born in Koutiala, Abdoulaye lived just outside Bamako, the capital of Mali, prior to the military coup in March 2012.

During the political uprising in Mali, Abdoulaye's family home was wiped out by rioters who supported the coup leaders, according to Ryan Roberge, Abdoulaye’s brother-in-law.

“Sidi’s family was forced to flee the country for fear of their own safety,” said Roberge in an email reply while on a business trip to Nigeria last week. “This is why my wife (Sidi’s oldest sister) and I decided to try to bring him to the U.S. to keep him safe and allow him to finish high school.”

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Abdoulaye doesn’t reveal many details of the coup and the fallout from it to his teammates, at least not from what MacDonald has seen or heard.

“He doesn’t talk about it that much, but he does say he misses his family,” MacDonald said. “He likes the environment we’ve provided as a team — kind of like a second family, at least that’s how I think of it.”

South Burlington has become his new home, a place that suited the transition to a new country and surroundings.

“It was hard for me to leave and get used to here,” said Abdoulaye, a Tuareg who speaks four languages. “Thanks to (cross-country) I have friends or I wouldn’t get used to (Vermont).”

Once a runner

Hoping to make the boys soccer team at South Burlington, Abdoulaye was at the tail end of preseason tryouts when he walked into the start of a cross-country practice.

Bennett thought Abdoulaye was someone else, but still waved him over and asked if he was interested in stretching out with the team. Abdoulaye did.

“I told him it was nice to meet him and if soccer didn’t work out he could come back and run with us,” Bennett said.

A couple days later, Abdoulaye didn’t make the soccer team, but Bennett had a spot waiting for him.

Abdoulaye joined Bennett’s crew and ran in the JV race at the Essex Invitational, finishing 65th with a time of 21:12. A year later, Abdoulaye was first overall in the varsity race, churning out an impressive 16:32.4 on the hilly terrain at the Catamount Outdoor Family Center in Williston.

Overall, Abdoulaye is averaging 3 minutes, 39 seconds faster per race than he did last year, when he finished fifth in the JV race at states.

With a runner’s build at 5-foot-7 and 112 pounds, Abdoulaye’s ascent to the top of Vermont cross country might have been ahead of Bennett’s timeline, but it was of no surprise.

“Coming into this year and watching his progress from the spring, I could tell he was starting to attack more,” Bennett said. “He couldn’t find a redline for a while, but he’s finding a rhythm and, in my opinion, he’s starting to feel what it’s like to go fast.

“I don’t think we’ve seen Sidi’s best race yet.”

“When I’m running, I don’t look at anything, I just focus on the race,” Abdoulaye said. “It’s great to be on this team.”

With a ceiling still not set, Abdoulaye might transfer his newfound running success to the next level.

“Some colleges and universities have approached Sidi about the possibility of scholarships, so this has been an important focus of the last few months,” Roberge said. “He is hopeful that at least one of them will pan out so that he can attend a good school and continue running competitively in college.”

But before the decision is made, Abdoulaye and the Rebels are making plans for a Division I repeat. The Rebels won their first title in program history last year and have reloaded following the graduation of Malcolm Plunkett and Tommy Royer, the team’s top two runners.

“We had two spots to fill and Sidi jumped the middle step and went right to the top,” MacDonald said. “He deserved it.“